Integrated system for ordering, fulfillment, and delivery of consumer products using a data network

Abstract

A technique for effecting electronic commerce using a data network is described. The data network includes a plurality of subsystems which, together, form an integrated system for receiving customer orders for selected items via a data network, fulfilling the customer orders, and delivering the ordered products to the customers. Moreover, according to a specific embodiment, the integrated nature of the system architecture of the present invention allows the on-line merchant to provide a guarantee to the customer that the ordered items will be available to be delivered to the customer at the specified delivery date, time, and location.

Description

RELATED APPLICATION DATA[0001]The present application claims priority under 35 USC 119(e) from U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60 / 133,646 entitled ELECTRONIC COMMERCE ENABLED DELIVERY SYSTEM AND METHOD filed May 11, 1999, the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. The present application also relates to a number of commonly assigned, copending U.S. patent applications filed simultaneously herewith including U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 568,570 for INVENTORY REPLICATION BASED UPON ORDER FULFILLMENT RATES, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 568,614 for REAL-TIME DISPLAY OF AVAILABLE PRODUCTS OVER THE INTERNET, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 568,613 for SCHEDULING DELIVERY OF PRODUCTS VIA THE INTERNET, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 568,572 for TECHNIQUE FOR PROCESSING CUSTOMER SERVICE TRANSACTIONS AT CUSTOMER SITE USING MOBILE COMPUTING DEVICE, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 568,823 for LOAD BALANCING TECHNIQUE IMPLEMENTE...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0017]According to specific embodiments of the present invention, a technique for effecting electronic commerce using a data network is described. The data network includes a plurality of subsystems which, together, form an integrated system for receiving customer orders for selected items via a data network, fulfilling the customer orders, and delivering the ordered products to the customers. Moreover, according to a specific embodiment, the integrated nature of the system architecture of the present invention allows the on-line merchant to provide a guarantee to the customer that the ordered items will be available to be delivered to the customer at the specified window delivery time.

[0020]An alternate embodiment of the present invention is directed to a method for effecting electronic commerce via a data network. The data network comprises a customer interface subsystem for facilitating ordering transactions of items selected by at least one customer; an Order Management Subsystem for managing customer orders, and for managing inventory stock and inventory data; an Order Fulfillment Subsystem for facilitating fulfillment of customer orders; and a delivery subsystem for facilitating delivery of customer orders to the customers. A customer order is received at the customer interface subsystem. The customer order includes information relating to at least one ordered item, and includes information relating to a specified delivery window time. Information relating to the customer order is sent to the Order Fulfillment Subsystem after a pre-determined cut-off time has passed. At least a portion of the customer order is fulfilled at the Order Fulfillment Subsystem. The fulfilling of an order includes verifying each inventory item which has been successfully fulfilled and processed for shipment to the customer. The delivery subsystem is then used to deliver the fulfilled order items to the customer. At the time of the delivery of the fulfilled order to the customer, a record is generated of each item being received by the customer. After the order has been delivered to the customer, the customer is then billed for the order. An additional aspect of this embodiment provides that the customer is able to modify the customer order at the time of delivery of the order to the customer. In a specific embodiment, the modification of a customer order which is initiated during delivery of the order to the customer may be processed by the delivery courier using a mobile field device which has been configured or designed to process and store customer order data. Additionally, using the mobile field device, the delivery courier may process, at the time of delivery, other customer service requests such as, for example, customer returns, credits, or other adjustments.

Problems solved by technology

However, many of the conventional systems which provide home shopping and home delivery services have significant limitations that prevent their adoption on a large scale basis.

This makes the groceries more expensive than if the customer had performed the shopping and purchasing himself / herself.

Additionally, when a customer places an order, Peapod can not guarantee that the ordered item will be available to be delivered to the customer.

Thus, if the grocery store does not have the ordered item (e.g. out of stock), the “shopper” cannot deliver that item to the customer.

Further, delivery scheduling problems may also arise with on-line shopping services such as those provided by Peapod.

Often, it is extremely difficult to fulfill a delivery request for an order to be delivered on the same day that the order was placed.

Therefore, many shopping services do not offer this feature.

Additionally, it is not uncommon for a scheduled customer delivery window to be missed because the order took too long to fulfill by the “shopper”.

Although the above-described on-line product purchasing technique provides the convenience of allowing a customer to purchase and receive a desired product without having to venture outside his or her home, current on-line shopping techniques suffer from a number of additional disadvantages (in addition to those described previously).

For example, many on-line merchants provide adequate customer service relating to on-line product purchases, but typically provide inadequate customer service for handling returns or customer complaints.

This latter request is typically handled as a separate transaction on the merchant's side, and may involve lengthy delays.

After the order has been fulfilled by the merchant, the customer is typically unable to modify or cancel the order.

It is worth noting that since the purchased items are typically shipped using an independent courier service or common carrier such as UPS, Federal Express, or the U.S. postal service, there is no mechanism in place whereby the customer is able to return the undesired product (e.g., book) back to the delivery courier for an immediate refund.

An additional problem with conventional on-line purchasing transactions relates to merchandise availability.

Moreover, until the returned order is processed, the returned merchandise will typically not be included as part of the inventory made available for customer purchase.

This results in an inefficient allocation of resources.

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